afghanistan now is more than 2,000. the latest deadly incident happened today at a check point west ofkabul. officials say one u.s. soldier and a u.s. civilian died. they're not sure if they were fighting insurgents or inside attackers from the afghan army. checking the race for the white house, three days before the first debate, president obama is out west. he landed in las vegas a little while ago where he's going to hold a rally later this evening. mitt romney is keeping a low profile this weekend. he went to church this morning outside boston but heads to colorado tomorrow where he will hold a rally and, of course, continue his preparations for wednesday's debate. key decision makers from across washington attended today's annual red mass. they include six of the nine supreme court justices. what is the red mass? it's an annual event that aims to bring people tok to pray for members of the judiciary before the court begins hearing cases. it's called the red mass

because, well, you can see, the clergy there are wearing red garments. some people criticize the service and see it too much of a mix of religion and government. police in middle, tennessee, have a real mystery on their hand. they're searching for a 9-year-old girl and her 7-year-old half brother. they were thought to have sdid in a house fire that killed their grandparents. investigators have found no sign of the children. here is the urgent part, the house fire happened a week ago. the kids have simply vanished. not something you see every day in texas. rescue crews helped stranded drivers after flooding. the past three days brought more rain than texas received all of last year when it suffered through one of its worst droughts in history. today's storms moved east into parts of louisiana and mississippi. they're expected to continue on

that path for the next 48 hours. a powerful typhoon is headed for tokyo after smacking the island of okinawa this weekend. typhoon jelawat is expected to hit tokyo tonight. officials are warning people in tokyo to stay inside. at least 145 people were injured in okinawa and other parts of japan. tens of thousands are without power. >> vf cuties with the consulting firm that florida election officials say turned in suspicious voter application forms. our cnn's dave mattingly has been investigating this story, and, david, what have you learned? we've heard this happening sometimes with the democrats. it's a little bit interesting that now it's the republicans who are having some questionable issues about registration. >> and we don't know how big or how small this is going to be, but it's in of all places

florida, which all voting problems seem to come from at one time or another. a company, strategic allied con supplementing was hired by the republican party to register people to vote. that's something they do in every election. this particular company, one employee was fired after providing false signatures on some of these documents. so now officials in multiple counties in florida are looking into this. it's the ground zero for it seems to be in palm beach county, and the elections supervisor there has a stack of 106 ballots she's going to have to go through that the company provided for her associated with this one particular employee. again, the actions of one employee have precipitated all of that. so beyond that, this election supervisor has decided as a safety net to look at all of the applications that have had changes on them recently and that's going to be 60,000 of them. now, she says she doesn't believe this is a crisis, but this extra work that they're going to have to do they believe

is necessary to make sure that they can say directly to the public, this was an isolated event, it's not widespread, but they're looking into it. >> what's fascinate ingfascinat employee sort of putting these false signatures, does that suggest these voters simply don't exist or does it suggest that they're trying -- what is behind all of this really? >> the one thing they're worried about most is that someone may have thought that they signed up to vote in this election, they go to the polls and find out they're really not registered because that wasn't their signature on there. so that's why the palm beach county supervisor of elections, susan butcher, she's calling on a similar action like what she's doing the, she's calling on a similar action statewide to make sure that all the stops are put out to make sure this did not go any further than they suspect it did. >> we're hearing so much about voter integrity in the lead up to this particular election. did this firm, this republican-hired firm, were they doing work in other states?

>> this firm is getting paid millions of dollars by the republican party before it was fired by the republican national committee. florida, colorado, north carolina, virginia. florida, we know they've been fired there. colorado, we've seen reports that similar action was taken to sever ties with them there. we've got calls in this weekend but not hearing back from north carolina or virginia about what sort of activities are going on there. >> right. which say mazing because obviously registration is such a huge issue. has this firm ever been in trouble before? >> actually the firm but not the firm but the owner of it. he was called into question for his activities by a couple of democratic congressmen and senators. this was back in 2004, but the attorney for the company says that he was wrongly accused and no charges were ever filed. so obviously he was a trusted vendor for these types of services for the republican party to pick him up again. >> all right. dave mattingly, i have a feeling we are going to be passing each other in various airports after the election trying to track

down whatever is going on. thanks so much, dave mattingly. a tennessee house fire leaves two grandparents dead and there's no sign of two kids who were staying at the home. it has been a week investigators are getting desperate. we go live to tennessee next. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. but kate -- still looks like...kate. nice'n easy with colorblend technology gives expert highlights and lowlights. for color that's true to you. i don't know how she does it. with nice'n easy, all they see is you.

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mystery and tragedy in middle tennessee tonight surrounding two little kids. a 9-year-old girl, 7-year-old boy. they're missing. police thought for sure they'd find their remains in the rubble of the family home that burned to the ground, but, no, there is no sign of them, and it has been several torturous days for the children's parents. our national correspondent susan candiotti is closely following the case, and, susan, what are you learning? >> reporter: debra, authorities in tennessee spend yet another day looking for any sign of 9-year-old chloe and her 7-year-old half brother gauge daniel. they used a team of dogs to work with investigators to go into the woods behind the house where the children live with their grandparents and also up and down the road in that area looking for any clues. remember, investigators are working with them on a number of theories. for example, did the children wander into the woods after that

house went ablaze? or did someone kidnap them? they found no physical evidence of the remains of the children in the house even though they did find the remains of the grandparents there. now, authorities have been talking with friends and family. they say everyone is cooperating, but so far without any sign and any luck of finding those children. police have a number of leads but they're not discussing them. of course, there are a lot of questions. for example, could the children have run into the woods when the fire started or did someone kidnap them? the search continues on monday. >> all right. national correspondent susan candiotti, thanks so much. well a 72-year-old man jumps from the window of his burning apartment. his neighbors catch him. watch this video. ronnie poe fell three stories. his only injury, a bruised heel. he says flames were blocking all other exit routes. >> i held my arm right here, and

waited and waited. i couldn't hold on no more. >> are you all right? are you okay? he's like, yeah, i'm good. >> the fire destroyed his kitchen. poe says he's not afraid of heights because he was trained as an army paratrooper. well, an illinois woman faces charges tonight accused of abandoning her 3 week-old child in an empty field. kendra meeker told stark county deputies someone snatched her infant from her car when she stopped at a post office to mail a package thursday, but investigators say that was a lie. police say meeker later confessed to abandoning her infant daughter. the baby was found in a ditch alive about 12 hours after she was initially reported missing. meeker faces charges of obstruction of justice and endangering the life of a child. a troubled lottery winner convicted of welfare fraud has died of a possible drug overdose. friends found 25-year-old amanda clayton's body in bed yesterday. her arms holding her toddler

daughter clayton was convicted this summer of using food stamps and welfare benefits after she won michigan's million dollar lottery last year. friends say clayton had problems that money clearly could not solve. now, don't cheat. look at your phone. could you rattle off your best friend's number? many people can't. some people even get the sweats if they have to drive ouwithout gps. is technology making us dumber? [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪

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so if i were to ask you, and be honest, what's your brother's phone number? what about your girlfriend, your boyfriend? odds are you probably can't tell me. that's because cell phones, iphones, smartphones, and tablets are remembering all these things for us. why waste all that important brain space on memorizing a phone number or god forbid an address, but is that convenience also the conflict? is technology making us a little dumber? cnn contributor and senior writer for espn lz granderson n

joins us tonight. you suggest tech nanology has m us automated i hdiot savants. it's not about knowing, it's about knowing how to find it. >> well, this is true to a certain extent, but what happens if you happen to go underneath a tunnel and your gps loses its signal? what happens if you lose your contacts for whatever reason? or what if your phone goes dead and you need to make the phone call and you don't actually know the number of the person you need to call. there are everyda moments that happens that we depend on technology but because we forget to have the backup, which is our brains, we can be left looking pretty stupid i think. >> you're absolutely right. i can just see one day when basically there's some technological blackout and all of us are standing there with our gadgets and kind of we don't know where to go. would you say technology has made us more social in the sense we're connecting in a more intimate way, okay, with people

on the other end of our devices but less social with the person maybe sitting right next to us? >> i think technology has made it easier to reach out to people who are far away and puts distance to people who are near us. i think that's the realronic twist about it. it happens in our household. we can be having dinner and all four of us are looking at our phones while we have dinner interacting with people who are hundreds of miles away. while it may be more convenient to talk to somebody on the other side of the country, the technology has us to latched on, we don't talk to the people in front of us. my favorite example is the cashier that can't count. years ago you would have never thought a cashier wouldn't be able to add. how many times have you gone through a drive through, get a total of $1.87 and tell the people you have 2 cents and they look at you like you just yelled

at them. they can't figure out how to give you the change if you throw in the 2 cents. they have no idea how to count. that's what technology has done to us. >> what's fascinating, i think this is -- i'll be in the subway or on a bus and i'll see people who obviously will -- are experiencing some sort of conversation on their devices and they'll smile and that kind of makes me smile because i know even though i'm not in the joke, i'm watching the joke that obviously two people are experiencing. technology though arguably has made us a little more productive, but are we -- while we're sort of pushing out sort of intimacy with those next to us, are we also failing to set a boundary that we need as well? because i know people who they will stop in the middle of a sentence if that blackberry buzzes. >> you know, i used to be one of those individuals, and i slowly had to realize that it was taking my life over. and it was my son actually put me in check once who said i went to his track meet and every time

he looked up, my face was in the blackberry, and i was so embarrassed, and i realized that i might have been there in spirit to support him but because i was constantly looking at work, i wasn't -- i really wasn't present, and so that's the danger when you have that kind of immediacy that you can have with technology. i love technology. i'm not saying we should gak to, you know, cave man and using smoke signals to have a conversation with each other, but what i do think is that we do need to set these boundaries. you know, there was a poll i included in the column i wrote in which 33% of the adults who responded thought it was okay to pick up your cell phone during sex. now, if you can't cut off the phone during sex, first of all, i feel bad for your person who you're having sex with, but on the other hand, what is going on with you that you can't make it through sex without picking up your freaking cell phone? that's when you know it's gone a little too far. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. you know, yeah. >> yeah. >> i'm just going to leave it there. >> i don't know if there's much more to say about that.

>> all i can say is yeah. >> if you can't make it through sex. >> we need to create boundaries. we need to learn the rules of how we engage so that, frankly, we're not cutting ourselves off from people who are close to us, who we should be having one-on-one moments with because actually they're in the same room as opposed to the people who may -- we may be think being but are some place else. lz granderson, yeah, thanks. we appreciate it. >> just leave the phone down if you're having sex. that's all i ask. use technology wherever else you want. >> anyway, whatever. lz granderson, always a pleasure. thank you so much. well, from education to health, personal relationships, and business, mobile technology is changing our world. cnn's our mobile society initiative is taking an in-depth look at these changes. for more go to cnn.com/rmobilesociety or visit the our mobile society section of the cnn mobile app.

well, the u.s. took a big lead into the final day of the ryder cup. did we hold on? we'll go live to illinois next. you don't have to be in front of a television to watch cnn. you can stay connected, you can do it on your cell phone or you can do it from your computer at work. just go to cnn.com/tv. i have a cold, and i took nyquil, but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose.

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well, it's already being called a historic win over the americans. just last hour the european team rallied from a major deficit to retain golf's prestigious ryder cup. cnn is live in medinah, illinois. shane, the u.s. team had a big lead going into the final day. what was the turning point for the europeans? >> reporter: i think that, deb, to be honest with you they were instilled with a faith, a belief, and the happy by their captain. he was a long time partner of seve. he was impressed on them his never say die attitude. he truly was a tat lis mattic

figure in so many ryder cups. the americans led 10-6 and the europeans had never staged a comeback like this before in the history of the competition. there was a belief they could do it and they went out and won the first five matches. that whole belief filtered through to the rest of the team. it was a stunning success. the winning putt effectively coming on the 18th green by martin kaymer. he holed out for this crucial pair against stref stricker. it meant the europeans retained the cup. they had won 8 points out of 12 on the final day. in the final match tiger woods was up against the italian. they managed to eke out a half. it was all square, even in the match between the two of them, but that was a crucial half point added to that 14 for european which gave them overall victory. 14 1/2 to 13 1/2. they said it couldn't be done but team europe did it.

a disappointing day for the americans. >> it was a dramatic comeback and something that was incredible to watch. what's this about rory mcilroy almost missing his tee time do you to confusion over a time zone? >> reporter: yeah. rory was watching television this morning and, you know, there was a lot of talk about the golf, and it sort of got into his head because the announcers were talking about it being eastern time. so they were giving his tee time as an eastern time zone time. so it was 12:25 p.m., and that's what he got into his head was his tee off time. in actual fact they are an hour behind here in chicago, so it was 11:25 that he needed to be here to tee off and with about a half hour to go, he got a call from the manager of the team, where are you, and he was still in the hotel. so they managed to get a police escort. in actual fact rory road shotgun with a police officer in his car. they had a few outriders and managed to get here with seven minutes to spare. but he managed to win as well,

so without hitting a shot before playing, he went out and won and brought a crucial point to his team. the fun why ny thing about it w afterwards when the team won, the captain presented rory with a huge alarm clock, so i don't think he will ever forget this day. >> that's exactly right. he will be checking what time zone he's in for the rest of his life. shane o donahue, thank you so much, live for us in medinah, illinois. we appreciate it. well, we are just three days away from the first debate between barack obama and mitt romney, and now there are new reports about the tactics both campaigns plan to use. we're going to be going live to washington next. [ male announcer ] now you can swipe...

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don't wait. call now. half past the hour now. let's take a look at the headlines. the number of americans military and civilian killed in afghanistan is now at more than 2,000. the latest deadly incident happened today at a checkpoint west of kabul. officials tell us one u.s. soldier and a u.s. civilian died. they're not sure if they were fighting insurgents or inside attackers from the afghan army. here in the u.s. there are just three days before the first presidential debate. president obama is out west tonight. he's going to be holding a rally in las vegas later this evening. mitt romney is keeping a low profile. he went to church this morning just outside boston. he'll be heading to colorado tomorrow and once there he's going to be holding a rally and continue his debate

preparations. that debate, of course, wednesday. police in middle tennessee have a real mystery on their hands. they're urgently searching for two kids, a 9-year-old girl and her 7-year-old half brother. the children were thought to have died in a house fire that killed their grandparents, but investigators have found no sign of the kids. here is the urgent part. the house fire happened last week, and the kids seemed to have simply vanished. europe has pulled off the improbable! >> yeah, it was pretty exciting. martin kaymer held his nerve to make the most dramatic of putts causing a huge upset at the ryder cup. the europeans rallied from behind to regain control of the trophy and stun the american team. the u.s. dominated the first two days of the competition, but had no answer to a european team which just came roaring back.

today the final day of play. the pressure is mounting ahead of wednesday' first debate between president obama and mitt romney. cnn's political report shannon travis is here with some new information about the behind-the-scenes preparations going on with both candidates. what are you hearing? any surprises in the works? >> reporter: probably likely. you can rest assured that both supporters of both mitt romney and president obama will be looking for body blows to be landed. we're hearing the reports that the romney campaign, that romney is working on some neat little attack lines, working on some zingers. today the obama campaign, the press secretary for the obama campaign, said that the president, don't expect for him to be landing any zingers. he's going to be looking straight into the camera speaking to the american public, trying to avoid zingers. basically trying to talk about his vision for moving the country ahead, so basically a little bit of different strategy we're hearing on both sides.

you mentioned just a moment ago where both candidates will be hunkered down. obama in nevada and mitt romney in denver come tuesday. in terms of their post debate plans, we're hearing paul ryan and mitt romney will reunite essentially and campaign in virginia. president obama will be in denver and madison, wisconsin, and joe biden will be in iowa. obviously, a lot going on in the final -- and the final preparations for the debate and just right after. >> yeah, and, you know, you talk about the zingers which is so interesting. clearly, each candidate wants to at least make his mark and obviously say something memorable for all the voters there. romney running with paul ryan, he was on the sunday talk shows today. we haven't heard much out of vice president biden lately. we know you've been traveling with him. when he's on the record he says a lot of interesting things. i guess he says a lot of things when he's off the record with you guys. >> a lot of things we won't talk

about right now. as you just said, i have been traveling extensively with the vice president, but publicly he's out with these new attack lines against his republican opponent basically saying one of the most memorable of late is the romney plan will basically increase the tacks on social security benefits for seniors. the romney campaign obviously saying that's flat out false. they're pointing reporters to this 1993 vote that biden, then senator biden, made which basically increased the taxes on the benefits of social security for seniors. so that's a huge issue because obviously a lot of this plays to seniors in florida, florida, florida, florida, a battleground state there, which is why you hear the romney campaign pushing back against it so hard. deb? >> so much at stake. shannon travis for us there. boy, you know, the countdown, it's going to be very interesting day come election day. thanks so much, shannon. president obama and mitt romney face to face as american voters weigh their choice. the first of three presidential debates will be on wednesday

night. we will be here for you. watch it live. 7:00 p.m. eastern on cnn and on cnn.com. well, extremists use violence to keep girls from getting an education, but at least one woman is braving the risks as she makes sure young girls in that country get into school. how can you get back pain relief that lasts up to 16 hours? with thermacare heatwraps. thermacare works differently. it's the only wrap with patented heat cells that penetrate deep to relax, soothe, and unlock tight muscles. for up to 16 hours of relief... try thermacare.

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in afghanistan most of the

girls have no voice. they are used as property of a family. the picture is very grim. my ne is razia jan and i'm the founder of a girls school in afghanistan. when we opened the school in 2008, 90% of them could not write their name. today 100% of them are educated. they can read, they can write. i lived in the u.s. for over 38 years, but i was really affected by 9/11. i really wanted to prove that muslims are not terrorists. i came back here in 2002. girls had been the most oppressed, and i thought i have to do something. it was a struggle in the beginning. i would sit with these men, and i would tell them don't marry them when they're 14 years old.

they want to learn. how do you write your father's name? after five years now, the men, they are proud of their girls. when they themselves can't write their name. still, we have to take precautions. some people are so much against girls getting educated. we provide free education to over 350 girls. i think it's like a fire. it will grow. every year my hope becomes more. i think i can see the future. >> and razia is just one of our top ten honorees eligible to become cnn here o of the year. go to cnnheroes.com to vote for your most inspirational hero. all ten will be honor eed on sunday december 2nd.

only one, named cnn hero of the year. you have heard from both president obama and governor mitt romney. you have seen the spin from both sides, and since we know you sometimes need the lighter side of politics, who doesn't, we have ben glee, comedian, actor, and host of the podcast last week on earth. he joins us from los angeles, ben, let's get right to it. camps on both sides seeming to manage expectations. is that like trying to make sure that each side doesn't step on a land mine kind of thing? good idea? >> yeah. exactly. they're trying to put out fires before they happen, which is not even how fire departments operate. but it's pretty amazing how every year they expect us to believe this person can take our nation and in a lot of ways the planet into a new day, can lead us through the most difficult times we're experiencing in modern history. yet also we should believe they're not great in front of a camera. don't expect too much though. they're also a little nervous in

front of people. >> everybody keeps talking -- >> only when explaining their policies. >> each side keeps talking about missteps. missteps that have been made. they have to manage how they come off. but let's talk about the leading ladies because both michelle obama and ann romney both out in the past week showing a more, you know, human side to their husbands. just take a quick listen. >> i have all the confidence in the world in his ability, in his decisiveness, in his leadership skills, in his understanding of the economy, in his understanding of what's missing right now in the economy, what -- you know, the pieces that are missing to get this jump started, so for me i think it would just be the emotional part of it. >> i can make him mad. i'm probably one of the few people who can really make him mad. >> how do you make him mad? >> any number of ways. >> okay. so interesting. are these wives helping or, you know, hurting their husbands in this buildup to the election? >> well, they're definitely

helping with their public image because they're the most likable parts of each ticket really, but i feel as though they could be helping a lot more because that ann romney clip continued to her saying that the only thing she's concerned about is if romney wins, she's concerned about his mental well-being. so you might not want to question the mental health of your husband who you're asking everybody to elect as leader of the free world, and michelle obama i feel like she can probably privately -- i think the biggest thing they can do to help their husbands is privately encourage them to be more of who they are at their best. she needs to tell barack four years ago you were very inspiring. do you remember those days? bring back the hits. don't do it like -- it's kind of like elton john rolls to town and doesn't play yellow brick road. they need the inspiring speeches. obviously ann romney, biggest tip i can give her is to encourage mitt privately to be a

little bit of the man she keeps telling us he is privately. privately she always says, oh, he's such a joker and he's like my sixth child and he's hilarious and loves to goof around and he's so human. yeah, all we see publicly is robot mitt romney who does what people tell him to do from all sides adjusting constantly to become president. all of his most interesting things happen in private somehow. he's hilarious. that's when he says what he really feels about the country. that's where he puts his investments in interesting offshore exotic places like the cayman islands. bring a little bit of this guy with actual life and personality in front of the camera. maybe you will have a chance on wednesday. >> the goofy guy. and just to play -- in all fairness, you know, president obama, who always tends to come off as very smiling and in control of things, it's ltion ki also kind of nice to know there's somebody right next to him who can totally get on his nerves and annoy him.

anyway, i think they call it -- >> this is true. >> -- marriage. okay. ben gleib, thank you so much. we appreciate your insights on this. thanks so much. all right. we'll see you soon. >> thanks for having me. how is this for a sunday night dinner table talker? >> i don't think that religion has anything useful to teach us. >> okay. atheist author richard dawkins, what he would say to god if, in fact, he is wrong. [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] [ laughing ] ♪ [ laughing ] why they have a raise your rate cd. tonight our guest, thomas sargent.

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it's been a few years since deadly violence in northern ireland made the headlines. the peace there is fragile but it is holding. officials hope it will continue to hold even if some new evidence rips open an old wound.

you're about to see a fascinating story and stick around for how you can see even more tonight. here is nic robertson. >> reporter: violence and anger were tearing northern ireland apart. >> we were robbing banks, robbing post offices, robbing trains. >> reporter: and men like former ira commander brenden hhes were to blame. >> planting bombs, shooting brits, trying to stay alive ourselves, trying to stay from getting arrested. >> reporter: explosive ref layings on audio tape. hughes' memories and those of more than 50 other former combat ants in northern ireland's trouble are held here at boston college. they contain secret and sensitive information about the troubles and what happened and who was involved and why. helen mckendry believes the tapes contain incriminating clues that could point to her mother's murderers. have you asked the police to pursue the tapes?

>> yes, we have. >> reporter: after almost a lifetime of disappointment, the mckendrys are beginning to believe truth and justice may be within reach. >> we didn't really care for the foot soldiers that were tasked with killing her mother perhaps, disposing of her body. it was the generals that told them to do it. and those generals are masquerading as politicians in suits and ties. and, yes, of course, it's only natural we'd wish to bring them down. yeah. >> reporter: northern ireland's police, agents of the british government, have subpoenaed the tapes believing they contain critical information about gene mcconville's murder, but ed maloney, the archives former director, believes exposing the secret tapes could lead to more violence. >> it is a crime in their eyes, in the leadership of the ira's eyes, punishable by death to bep

tray secrets to anyone outside the organization. >> reporter: do you think in your heart that these tapes will be handed over? >> i'm hoping that they will be. yeah, i'm hoping. tapes will be handed over? >> i'm hoping they will be. it's all i can do is hope. >> that report from nic robertson is a taste of an hour long documentary you will see here on cnn. it's coming up next at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. we'll run it at 11:00 p.m. eastern. s "secrets of the belfast project." watch it or dvr it. it's coming up. richard is a former author and it seems a perennial lightning rod for controversy. cnns red chair team sat down with him to get his thoughts on creationism and what he would say as an atheist if he met god.

>> be fascinated by it. i don't think religion has anything useful to teach us. one of the main reasons why people are religious is because they are persuaded by the design of living things. it's completely destroyed by darwin. if you read any book by a biologist about evolution, it's hard to see how you could fail to be persuaded of it. the evidence is just absolutely -- there's no doubt about it. it's not a controversial issue. it's completely certain. it's as certain as the fact that the earth and the other planets orbit the sun. more than 40% of the american population think the world is less than 10,000 years old. that's a shocking figure.

it shows deep, profound ignorance. it sounds very laudable to teach the controversy, to teach both theories. there's not two theories. there's only one game in town. of course, you have negative reactions from creationists. who cares about them? they don't know anything. i think it was my father who introduced me to darwin. it started a roller coaster and i started to become anti-religious after that. i went through a middle ground. i gave up christianity before i gave up the idea of a creative designer of some kind. darwin made it easy to be a

fulfilled atheist. before that, you could be but it was difficult but you had no good explanation why living things looked so well designed. darwin provided that. there were moral reasons for being religious or people feel they have a personal relationship with god or jesus or mohammed, whatever it is. that reason would not be undermined by darwinnism. it's quite wrong to believe that science reduces humanity, that science gives you a bleak, cold, empty, barren view of the universe and of life. quite the contrary. science is enriching and fulfilling. what's going to happen when i die? if i met god, the unlikely event after i died, i think the first thing i would say is which one

are you? are you zeuss, are you thor? which god are you? why did you take such great pains to conceal yourself and hide away from us. >> and you can see more fascinating interviews like this one online at our website, go to cnn.com/video and search red chair. up next, a story involving yard sales, a space launch and bobble head of president obama. can you figure it out? now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse.

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sxz nasa believes they have found evidence of once fast flowing rivers on mars. that's right. scientists knew of the existence of water there. we'll have the interview at 10:00 p.m. eastern. he explains what this means to the rivers here on earth. a space launch, yard sales and president obama bobble head doll. what do they have in common? >> reporter: it's one thing to send your 4-year-old sons favorite toy train to the stratosphere attached to a weather balloon and a camera. the balloon pops, the train falls back to earth. what will they think of next?

>> lift off. >> reporter: to launch into space. >> the president's gear. >> it's bobble head astronaut obama in a wild decent 20 miles above california. you added a little extra glue to make sure his head didn't fly off? >> that's right. it's not presidential to lose your head in space. >> reporter: he lost it on impact. >> obama lost his head. >> we got down to the boxer shorts. >> reporter: he isn't a mud slinger against obama. the group of eight supporters launched the presidential bobble head to raise money for him and bring the flight to the music from "e.t.." the idea was to promote yard sales for obama. note the bobble head picket fence where supporters sold their stuff, raised a few thousand dollars, but bobble head obama was raised 100,000 feet. a helium balloon that held a

camera and the bobble head. up they went above the golden gate bridge through the clouds and with the earth behind him -- the helium balloon burst as expected at that altitude. a parachute deployed and the bobble head landed 30 miles from the launch site. five times they launched him. several missions were flops. one landed in the pacific ocean. naturally, they made modifications to add buoyancy. presidential pool noodles. the final video is the best footage from the five flights. bobble head oba returned to earth with one visible nick on his neck. >> right there, you can see that his head is banged into it. >> reporter: the president got dinged. candidates tend to become experts at nodding and